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Bloomberg Tech

Meta Cable Expansion Stalled by Iran Conflict

13 Mar 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What impact is the Iran conflict having on AI investments in the Middle East?

0.031 - 17.837 Unknown

Adobe is turning AI promise into marketing reality. A reality where personalization feels more human, automation feels authentic, and customers feel more connected to your brand. From AI frenzy to ROI, it starts with Adobe.

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17.817 - 41.312 Ed Ludlow

Donald Trump is rewriting the Washington rulebook and reshaping the global economy. If you're trying to connect the dots behind the headlines, Bloomberg's Trumponomics podcast is here to help. I'm Stephanie Flanders, head of government and economics at Bloomberg. Every week I'll bring you a smart, focused conversation with reporters and experts from Washington, Wall Street and beyond.

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42.213 - 46.66 Ed Ludlow

Listen to new episodes every Wednesday and follow Trumponomics wherever you listen.

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49.863 - 56.667 Unknown

People who didn't do what John of God wanted them to do, they usually disappeared.

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57.355 - 81.591 Olivia Solon

John of God was once Brazil's most famous spiritual healer. But in this limited series podcast, we uncover the darker truth behind his global empire of faith and fear. From Exactly Right and Adonde Media, this is Two-Faced, John of God. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

85.486 - 106.291 Unknown

Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts. Radio. News. Bloomberg Tech is live from coast to coast with Caroline Hyde in New York and Ed Ludlow in San Francisco.

106.311 - 113.94 Ed Ludlow

This is Bloomberg Tech. Coming up, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gives an update on Iran as we near the end of week two of the war.

114.663 - 121.348 Katrina Manson

We know the new so-called not-so-supreme leader is wounded and likely disfigured.

122.965 - 146.56 Ed Ludlow

Plus, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayan will resign amid skepticism about the company's ability to thrive in the AI era. And the S&P is considering changes to rules governing how companies join its index, which could fast-track SpaceX's entry after an IPO. Let's get to markets, and this is what the financial markets look like this Friday. It's a kind of continuation of the broader theme of the week.

Chapter 2: Why is Meta pausing its internet expansion efforts in Africa?

1640.028 - 1660.623 Ed Ludlow

It's a big story that the team... broke and tried to explain in detail the considerations that are happening. And they are considerations. So, let's start with that. What have we learned in our reporting? Well, yeah, it's important to note that no final decisions have been taken on this. However, should S&P decide to change its rules, its committee, it would be absolutely momentous.

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1661.103 - 1688.581 Ed Ludlow

It would, you know, excuse the pun, put rocket fuel on the trading of SpaceX as a new company. You and I did a story together yesterday. It was complicated, in part based on regulatory filing, in part the people we spoke to. But in short, SpaceX's acquisition of XAI has closed, and there is some ownership mechanics that took place. Explain it to our audience. Well, I wish we had half an hour.

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1688.661 - 1712.896 Ed Ludlow

But in short, it's effectively tidying up the balance sheet, putting different pieces of equity into different boxes. Tesla's investment in XAI has been rolled over into SpaceX. Some of the early investors who've been with Elon for a long time across different companies, those like Valor and DFJ, have also had their stakes in SpaceX slightly increased as part of these changes.

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1713.397 - 1731.636 Ed Ludlow

It's all designed to make your equity term sheet look a little bit more normal as you approach the IPO process, which we still expect to happen this summer or into the autumn. Okay, Bloomberg's Karl Porter, part of the team that's done a lot of reporting on, I guess, mechanics of what's happening with SpaceX ahead of an anticipated public market debut.

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1732.077 - 1750.267 Ed Ludlow

Let's get an investor's perspective on all of it. Peter Singlehurst leads the private companies team at Bailey Gifford, an investor in SpaceX, but other names that I guess we've talked in the context of being potential blockbuster IPOs down the line. Anthropic is another example. Peter, welcome back to the show.

1750.948 - 1778.856 Ed Ludlow

I think it's the first time we've had the opportunity to speak since SpaceX acquired XAI. And I guess just what's your reaction to that? How you guys felt about it, the interpretation of the rationale behind it? I think when you step back and you consider what has made SpaceX such an incredible business over the last 10 years, it's their ability to drive down the cost of launch.

1778.937 - 1796.952 Ed Ludlow

It's the deflationary nature of their business. And when you look at other hardware categories where we've seen that historically, such as Moore's Law in transistors or Flatley's Law in genomics, when you drive down cost by orders of magnitude, it opens up

1796.932 - 1822.382 Ed Ludlow

phenomenal un unforeseeable use cases um and we're seeing that in the domain of space now starlink has been the first application of that and we think there's a stateable case that data centers in space could well be the next application that opens up as you drive down that cost of launch now it's early days for that it remains unproven but if that is

1822.362 - 1846.399 Ed Ludlow

to be something that is feasible, being vertically integrated into an LM model such as the Grok model will be an advantage for SpaceX. At the time that the news came that SpaceX would acquire XAI, we did some reporting that essentially XAI operates as a subsidiary of SpaceX.

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